The present invention is directed to a hollow cylindrical sleeve which can be removably mounted onto mandrels, bridge sleeves, or cylinders for use in printing, coating, or the like, and in particular to a thin-walled hollow, reinforced cylindrical sleeve having an integral compressible layer.
In flexographic printing operations, flat, flexible plates were hand mounted onto print cylinders by wrapping and adhering the plates to the underlying cylinder. Generally, the flat plate comprised a base layer having either a rubber layer with relief indicia or a photocurable polymer layer thereon. In some instances, a compressible layer was positioned between the base layer and rubber or photocurable layer to improve print quality. Such flat plates had the advantage that they could be relatively thin and flexible because they were to be directly mounted to the print cylinder. However, such mounting processes were labor intensive and slow.
More recently, hollow cylindrical sleeves have served as supports for various types of printing. In one existing flexographic printing process and product (commercially available in the United States from OEC Graphics, Inc. under the trademark SEAMEX), a photopolymerizable material in the form of a flat sheet is wrapped around a metal (such as nickel) or plastic sleeve whose surface has been primed with a heat activated adhesive. The sleeve and photopolymer material are then heated, bonding the photopolymer to the sleeve. The surface of the sleeve is then ground to a predetermined plate thickness. The plate may then be processed by registering a negative onto the sleeve, exposing the sleeve to radiation to cure exposed areas of the photopolymer, and then washing out unexposed portions of the photopolymer to leave a relief image for printing.
In other printing applications, including offset lithography, a rubber layer is applied to a base sleeve and vulcanized. The rubber may then be ground to thickness. Accordingly, for these applications, it is necessary that the sleeve be able to tolerate the high temperatures experienced during activation of adhesive and vulcanization of rubber. In both of these applications, the hollow cylindrical sleeve must be relatively smooth and stiff in order to be suitable for its intended support purpose and to provide a desired printing quality upon a substrate such as, for example, paper.
Hollow cylindrical sleeves of various configurations are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,391,898; 4,503,769; 4,554,040; 4,601,928; 4,656,942; 4,812,219; 4,949,445; 4,963,404; 5,468,568; 5,819,657; 5,840,386; 6,038,971; and 6,038,975. Generally, these prior art sleeves consist of a plurality of associated concentric layers, typically an outer printing or surface layer and one or more underlying support layers.
For example, Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,769, discloses a metal-coated, thin-wall plastic printing cylinder for rotogravure printing. An expanding mandrel containing journal bearings internally and laterally supports a metal coated, hollow, plastic cylindrical sleeve (glass fiber reinforced polyester or phenolic resin).
Van der Meulen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,445, teaches a cylindrical sleeve with a metal or plastic core which is covered with a compressible material onto which a perforated (stencil) printing sleeve may be mounted. Van der Velden, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,601,928, 4,554,040, and 4,391,898, teach cylindrical printing sleeves formed on about a woven fabric mesh using sheets of photopolymer which are wrapped about the mesh core.
Vertegaal et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,942, discloses a printing apparatus using flexible metal sleeves to transfer ink and a method of mounting the sleeves. The sleeves are made by electro depositing metal in a form that is very thin, readily collapsible, and imperforate. The outer surface of the sleeve is coated with a flexible, microcrystalline, wholly inorganic photoconductive material. One example of this type of material is sputtered ultra-pure cadmium sulfide.
Sattrup et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,219, discloses a method of producing a surface sleeve for mounting on a plate cylinder in a printing process. A cylindrical sleeve made from an electrically conductive material such as nickel is mounted onto a supporting mandrel with a cylindrical outer surface. An inner metal layer is electrolytically deposited on the outer peripheral surface of the sleeve and an outer copper layer is electrolytically deposited on the inner metal layer. The printing pattern is etched directly on the copper layer or on a chrome layer covering the copper layer. Subsequently, after the engraving of the printing pattern, the opposite outer portions of the sleeve are removed due to the increased thickness of the metal layers.
Jenkins, U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,404, discloses a process for the production of a thin walled coated cylinder and an ink transfer roller. A thin-walled, seamless nickel cylinder is coated by plasma spraying a ceramic fluorocarbon polymer thereon. An adhesive layer of metal is applied between the surface of the cylinder and the coating. The adhesive layer consists of at least two metals reacting exothermally with each other under plasma spraying conditions.
Kxc3xchn et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,568, is directed to a printing roller designed for a gravure printing process with a sleeve of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic which is then plasma sprayed to form a coating of copper or a copper alloy. A variety of fibers and plastics are disclosed for use in the sleeve, which is stated to have a wall thickness of less than about 3 mm.
Rossini, U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,657, teaches a carrier spacer sleeve for a printing cylinder. The patent contains a discussion of the use of thin sleeves in flexographic printing operations. Such thin sleeves are designed to be air mounted onto the carrier spacer sleeves to enable a printer to modify the effective diameter of printing cylinders for jobs of different print repeat lengths.
Hatch et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,386, describes a sleeve that is adapted to be mounted onto a mandrel. The sleeve is used to transfer ink in anilox or gravure printing processes. The sleeve includes an inner layer, an intermediate compressible layer, and a metal outer layer. The inner layer may be fabricated from fiber-reinforced plastic and may be in the form of a DuPont Cyrel(trademark) sleeve.
Fisher, U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,971 discloses a method and apparatus for producing a screen-printing stencil. A covering layer is applied to certain areas of a fine-mesh screen corresponding to a predetermined printing design. The screen is closed on the backside by a cylindrical support to prevent the covering liquid from passing through the screen. The support may be a thin walled metal cylindrical sleeve.
Hoffmann et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,975, discloses a gapless sleeve for offset printing. The sleeve includes a roller core and a thin intermediate layer, which can be either a self-adhesive plastic sheet or a coating of plastic, metallic, or ceramic material.
The known hollow cylindrical sleeves however exhibit a number of constraints with respect to their manufacture and use. For example, one problem has been that one currently-used manufacturing process for such hollow cylindrical sleeves produces a seam in the sleeve which may affect the print quality of high quality flexographic printing. Other substrates such as nickel, zinc, copper, or other metal sleeves are much higher in cost and cannot effectively serve as consumable items. Another problem is that current polyester sleeve materials are not able to withstand the high temperatures required to vulcanize rubber print layers.
None of the thin-walled hollow cylindrical sleeve constructions of the prior art solely utilizes a reinforcing fibrous material to provide a low-cost product which is capable of withstanding the heat of vulcanization of rubber and which has the capability of being mounted onto a carrier in an airtight manner. Conventional hollow cylindrical sleeves having a base layer of fabric have seen only limited use due to their lack of holding strength on a cylinder as well as their lack of air-tightness required for proper mounting of the sleeve. A thin-walled fiber-reinforced hollow cylindrical sleeve would be advantageous because of low manufacturing costs and could be used as a consumable item when paired with either a photopolymer plate or a rubber layer.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for an inexpensive, thin-walled fiber-reinforced hollow cylindrical sleeve which does not suffer from the problems of prior art sleeves.
The present invention is directed to fiber reinforced, thin-walled hollow cylindrical sleeves used in flexographic printing as supports for imageable surface layers such as photo-polymerizable printing plates or rubber layers. By xe2x80x9cimageable surface layerxe2x80x9d we mean material which can be acted upon (such, for example, as by actinic radiation to cure, or by mechanical grinding, or by laser ablation) to form an imaged relief surface. The hollow cylindrical sleeve has the advantages of having a low manufacturing cost, rigidity, and provides the necessary heat resistance to withstand rubber vulcanization temperatures. The hollow cylindrical sleeve is also airtight, and remains properly positioned during printing operations. The hollow cylindrical sleeve can also be used in applications that include plate-on-sleeve systems.
In accordance to one aspect of the present invention, a thin-walled print sleeve is provided and includes a hollow cylindrical base comprising a fiber-reinforced polymer resin having a wall thickness of from between about 0.1 mm to about 0.8 mm, preferably from about 0.2 mm to about 0.7 mm, a compressible layer on the cylindrical base, and a layer of material having an imageable surface on the compressible layer. The cylindrical base is expandable under the application of fluid pressure and provides a fluid-tight seal when said sleeve is mounted onto a cylinder, mandrel, or the like. In a preferred embodiment, the material having an imageable surface is selected from the group consisting of photocurable (e.g., photopolymerizable) materials and natural or synthetic rubbers. Preferably, the imageable material has a thickness of from between about 0.5 mm to about 1.4 mm.
It is preferred that the fiber is selected from the group consisting of glass fibers, aramid fibers, carbon fibers, metal fibers, and ceramic fibers. Preferred polymer resins for use in the fabrication of the sleeve include phenolic resins and aromatic amine-cured epoxy resins. The compressible layer improves print quality and preferably has a thickness of from between about 0.5 mm to about 1.4 mm. The print sleeve typically has an overall thickness of from between about 3.0 mm to about 3.5 mm. Generally, the sleeve is expandable under a fluid pressure of from between about 70 to about 112 psi (4.9 to about 7.9 kg/cm). The sleeve may be designed to be mounted onto a print cylinder, a mandrel, or a bridge mandrel, depending upon the desired use.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of fabricating a thin-walled print sleeve is provided and includes providing a cylindrical support, applying a fibrous material and a polymer resin to the support to form a thin-walled fiber-reinforced resin base sleeve, curing the base sleeve, and working an outer surface of the base sleeve to provide a wall thickness of from between about 0.1 mm to about 0.8 mm. A layer of compressible material is applied to the outer surface of the base sleeve, and a layer of material having an imageable surface is applied over the compressible material to form the print sleeve. The print sleeve is cured, and an outer surface of the print sleeve is worked (such as by mechanical grinding) to provide a predetermined overall wall thickness.
Preferably, the fibrous material comprises a fiber strand which is wound onto said support. Alternatively, the fibrous material may comprise a woven fabric. The fibrous material and polymer resin may be applied to the support in a variety of ways. For example, polymer resin may be coated onto the support and the fibrous material wound or wrapped about the polymer resin. Alternatively, the fibrous strand or woven fabric may be impregnated with polymer resin and applied to the support. The application of fibrous material and resin may be repeated to build up a sufficient wall thickness for the base sleeve. Once the base sleeve reaches a predetermined thickness, the outer surface of the base sleeve is worked, such as by mechanically grinding it, to achieve desired tolerances. Alternatively, the base sleeve may be fabricated by a pultrusion process in which the support comprises a forming die.
The compressible layer may also take a number of forms. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, the compressible layer comprises a sheet material that is applied to the base sleeve by spirally wrapping the compressible layer around the base sleeve. Alternatively, the compressible layer is applied to the base sleeve by wrapping and seaming opposite ends of the compressible layer. The compressible layer may include a layer of adhesive on at least the surface in contact with the base sleeve to secure the two together.
In another embodiment of the invention, the compressible layer comprises an uncured elastomer, preferably containing uniformly distributed microspheres, and the elastomer is spread onto the surface of the base sleeve and then cured and ground to a predetermined thickness and diameter. The elastomer, in the form of a liquid, may be applied to the base sleeve while the base sleeve is rotating. Preferably, the elastomer is a foamable composition which is foamed and cured in place on the base sleeve without the need for additional adhesives to secure the compressible layer to the base sleeve. While the application and curing may take place without the need for a mold, it is within the scope of the invention to use a mold to shape the compressible layer.
The outer layer of the sleeve comprises a material having an imageable surface. In one embodiment of the invention, the material comprises a photocurable material in the form of a sheet. The sheet of photocurable material is applied to the compressible layer by spirally wrapping the sheet around the layer of compressible material, or, alternatively, by wrapping and seaming opposite ends of the sheet. In yet other alternative embodiments, the photocurable material may be applied to the compressible layer by spreading, dipping, casting, or molding the photocurable material on the layer of compressible material. As with the compressible layer, the outer layer may be applied as a liquid while the underlying sleeve and compressible layer are rotating. Again, when such a rotary casting method is used, there is no need for any additional adhesives to secure the compressible and outer layers to one another.
In another embodiment of the invention, the material having an imageable surface comprises uncured natural or synthetic rubber in the form of a sheet. The rubber layer is applied to the compressible layer by spirally wrapping the sheet around the layer of compressible material or by wrapping and seaming opposite ends of the sheet. Alternatively, the material having an imageable surface may comprise uncured natural or synthetic rubber in the form of an extruded tube which is mounted over the compressible layer by expanding the extruded tube under fluid pressure and pulling the tube onto the base sleeve and compressible layer. In yet another embodiment, the material having an imageable surface comprises uncured natural or synthetic rubber which is spread or cast over said compressible layer. The entire sleeve is then cured.
Accordingly, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a reinforced, thin-walled sleeve for use in printing operations having a low manufacturing cost, rigidity, and the necessary heat resistance to withstand rubber vulcanization temperatures. The hollow cylindrical sleeve is also airtight, and remains properly positioned during printing operations. These, and other features and advantages of the present invention, will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.